This morning for our Bible study,
I would invite you and hope that you would take your Bible this
morning and let's turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5
and let's begin reading at verse 17. Think not that I come to
destroy the law or the prophets. I've not come to destroy. The
Lord Jesus Christ plainly says, I came to fulfill all the law. and everything that was written
of by all the Old Testament prophets. Verse 18, For barely, or truly,
I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, or from the word, till all
be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break
one of the least of these commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall
be called least in the kingdom of heaven, But whosoever shall
do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven. Now verse 20 is a verse I want to camp on for a little
while this morning. For I say unto you that except
your righteousness, now that's the key word this morning in
this study, righteousness. Our Lord says, except your righteousness
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no case in no way enter into the kingdom of heaven. Now the scribes and the Pharisees
in this time here in Jerusalem, the scribes and Pharisees were
regarded by the Jews as the most spiritual, most religious, most
holy people. There was a saying in that day
among the Jews, if only two people went to glory, one would be a
scribe and the other a Pharisee. They were regarded by the common
people as the most religious, most holy. As far as the outward
religious works were concerned, no one outperformed them. They were very zealous of where
they went and what they did, what they said. Yet the Lord
plainly says that this righteousness they possess, an outward moral
righteousness they possess, our Lord plainly says it's not enough. He said you must have a righteousness
that's far exceeding to theirs. You must have a righteousness
just not to match theirs or to meet theirs. It must be something
more than an outward morality. He said it must exceed it, exceed
it. Now, three things, three or four
things that I know the word of God teaches. There will be no
admission to glory to God's presence without a perfect justifying
righteousness. We read in Psalm 24, who shall
ascend into the hill of the Lord? who shall stand in his holy presence,
he that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who has never lifted
up his soul to vanity." None of us possess that naturally. No admission to God's presence
without a perfect righteousness. Secondly, an outward, legal,
moral righteousness is not enough. It's just not enough. It's not
sufficient. And the reason being, God says,
our righteousness, the best we have, the best we can bring,
he says, away with it, it's filthy rags. Now, let me ask you this.
Where is such an exceeding, justifying righteousness to be found? Where
is it to be found? Now, that's the question. I think
of the hour, the moment. Where is this justifying righteousness
to be found? Well, my friend, the word of
God spells out this righteousness that we must have, this righteousness
that's exceeding The Apostle Paul said that he counted everything
but loss, dung, and ruin, that he may win Christ and be found
in him, having his righteousness. You see, the righteousness that
the believer enjoys, this exceeding righteousness that we enjoy,
is in Christ, in the Lord Jesus Christ himself. He's described
in Scripture as the Lord, our righteousness. And my friend,
this righteousness that we have and we enjoy that's an exceeding
righteousness that God will accept, this righteousness is received
by believing, not doing, by believing. It's received by faith. being
justified by faith, we have peace with God. I want to show you
five or six things about this subject of righteousness. Now,
I pray that you listen to me carefully, because a righteousness
that's justifying we must have, and that righteousness is only
found in Christ, not in the right church. Not doing the right work. It's received by faith in Christ. Now, listen to me. Here's five things we must understand. The first one is righteousness
lost. Righteousness lost. The Word
of God describes us in vivid terms as guilty sinners. Read the record in Romans 3 and
other places. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There's none that understand.
There's none that seeks God. They've all gone out of the way.
There's none righteous, no, not one. Righteousness lost. Ezekiel, or rather in Ecclesiastes
7, verse 20, we read, there's not a just man upon the earth
that doeth good, no, not one. Isaiah 64, I quoted that already. Our righteousness, God says,
is filthy rag. In Genesis 6-5, we read, every
imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually. You see, righteousness lost. These things were not always
that way. God didn't create man in a fallen state. God created
man in righteousness. After the image of God, we read
that in Ecclesiastes 7, God made man upright. But what the problem
is, is this, Adam didn't stay that way. Adam sinned against
God in his heart. And what Adam did, I did. His
sin was reckoned and imputed to us. By one man, sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all
men in whom all sinned. In Adam, we stand guilty. His
sin was reckoned, charged, and imputed to us. His fallen nature
was also imparted to us. Jeremiah describes the heart,
that's our nature, as deceitful and desperately wicked. You see,
righteousness was lost in Adam. We're dead in sin, ruined, dead,
and shut out. Secondly, we see There's a righteousness
required, and here's the reason. God is holy. Being perfectly
holy, he demands perfect holiness. Anyone that is not perfectly
holy as God will be consumed by the fire of his holiness.
Now let me ask you this simple question. How good does one have
to be to enter into God's presence justified? Think about it. How good do you have to be? Let
me tell you, my friend, here's the answer. as good as God, as
good as God. God requires absolute holiness. It must be perfect to be accepted. God demands holiness of us, but
my friend, here's the truth, we can't produce it. We can't
produce a holiness. We can't produce a righteousness.
Man in his best state is altogether vanity. There is a holy law I
cannot keep. The law of God declares me guilty,
by no way justifies me. By the deeds of the flesh shall
no man be justified. The law, there's a holy law I
cannot keep. There's a righteousness demanded
that I cannot produce. There's a life of sin I cannot
erase. What if I could from this point
live a good life, a perfect life? What about the sin of the past?
I can't go back and erase that. You see, God demands righteousness. And there's a judgment at which
I can't escape. God's appointed unto men once
to die, and after that judgment, the whole purpose of God giving
that law is to show us and convince us that we're sinners. To show
us and convince us that I can't produce a righteousness. And
this law of God was given not to put away sin, but to expose
our sin and to drive us in despair to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul
put it this way in Galatians 3. The scripture hath concluded,
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. Before faith came, we were kept
under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterward
be revealed. Wherefore, the law was our schoolmaster. That's our guide, our teacher
to drive us, to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by
faith. You've got the first two, righteousness
lost, righteousness required. Now thirdly, righteousness established,
or we might say righteousness reestablished. The Lord Jesus
Christ came to fulfill and to establish the justifying righteousness
for us. He says that in our text, Matthew
5, 17. He says, I didn't come to destroy
the law or the prophets. My friend, he came to fulfill,
to accomplish, to execute, and to complete this justifying righteousness
before God. He said to John, suffered to
be so, for us to fulfill all righteousness, living as our
mediator, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Living as our mediator,
he executed perfect righteousness. He lived as a perfect man. The
record of scripture said he had no sin. He knew no sin. He did
no sin. Such a high priest became us
who was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sin, Hebrews
7, 26. living as our perfect mediator,
dying effectually as our substitute. I must not only have a righteousness
that justifies, but I must have an atonement to put away my sin,
past, present, and future. The Lord Jesus Christ is my substitute,
the just dying for the unjust that he might bring us unto God.
Christ living as our Mediator, dying effectually as the Believer's
Substitute, as the Believer's Mediator, is our total acceptance
before God. We're accepted in the Beloved. This is how righteousness is
established, not by us, by our Substitute, Jesus Christ. Only
in Christ is God well pleased. He lived a life I couldn't live.
The Father spoke from heaven and said, this is my Beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. He paid the debt I could not
pay. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us. Now listen to me. If
salvation comes some other way than by the blood, person, and
righteousness of Christ, if it can come some other way, the
record of Scripture says, then Christ is dead in vain. He died
needlessly. Galatians 2.21 says if Christ,
if righteousness comes by the law, comes by my morality, comes
by my work, then Christ is dead in vain. We read in Hebrews,
or rather Romans 10, verse 4, Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You see, righteousness
established in Christ. He is our righteousness. Now,
fourthly, this very righteousness that we need is imputed by God's
sovereign grace. The fourth point is this, righteousness
imputed. Righteousness imputed and received
by faith. Now, this Bible truth of imputation
is very, very important. It's vital to the scheme of salvation
by grace. We see several things about this
imputation. We see the imputation of Adam's
sin to all people. In Adam, all sinned. In Adam,
all died. We see the imputation of God's
elect The sin of God's people was laid on Christ. God made
Him to be sin for us. He was wounded for our transgression. Our sin was laid upon Him. He's
guilty of sin by imputation. God reckoned our sin to the Lord
Jesus Christ, our substitute. He paid my debt. Imputation of
Christ to the believer. You see those three things? The
imputation of Adam's sin to all people, the imputation of our
sin to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to the believer we see
an imputed righteousness by God's grace received by faith. We read
that in Romans 4. And he quotes from the Old Testament
in Psalm 32. He talks about blessed is a man
to whom God would impute righteousness with outworked. Abraham believed
God and it was reckoned and counted to him as a justifying righteousness
as that faith looked to Christ. This is the only way we can stand
before God justified. This is the way that God has
devised so as to exclude all human merit and magnify his own
grace. Exactly the same way we were
ruined were redeemed only in a different man. Imputation. Righteousness imputed. Now here's
the scripture that verifies that. Romans 5, 19 says, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered in, by one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. So by the obedience of one, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ, we see that many are made righteous. How is this imputed righteousness
received? It's received by believing, not
by doing. Faith is not the cause of salvation. Faith simply receives Christ
who performed and executed all righteousness for us. So, here
in conclusion, what is the righteousness we must have that's an exceeding,
justifying righteousness before God? It's an imputed righteousness
received by faith, and that is Christ, who is our righteousness. Now, I pray the Lord will bless
that word to your heart and cause you to think about how far short
our righteousness, that is, the deeds of our hands, We've all
sinned and come short of the glory of God, and may God show
you the necessity of Christ, our exceeding righteousness.